These days, people talk about ‘detox’ and cleaning up of toxins and waste in the body. Now, what are the sources and causes that form toxins? All our dis-eases are said to be caused by the accumulated toxins and wastes in our body.
The main source of toxins is undigested food. They are they formed due to the following reasons:
- If you eat when you are NOT hungry, the body does not produce the required amount of digestive enzymes, acids and bile, when the food enters the body. So, what you eat just passes through the body, leaving behind quite some undigested lumps. Do not eat within 3 hours of your previous meal/snack is what Ayurveda prescribes.
Ayurveda also says NOT to starve beyond 6 hours because the stress of hunger on the body affects proper production of digestive juices.
- The food we eat stays in our stomach for about 3 hours. During this time, all your energy is concentrated in the stomach to help digestion. If you have bath within that 3 hours, digestion in the stomach stops as your energy flows outward to the skin. The undigested food passes out of the stomach after the 3 hours.
- When you are worried, angry or grief-stricken, digestive juices are not produced properly. You would also be not really hungry. If you eat when your mind is overtaken by emotions, what you eat does not get digested and produces toxins.
- Overeating Ayurveda tells us to eat sweets first in the meal because they are heavy to digest. But most people eat sweet as dessert. Even after a heavy meal the mind still allows sweets inside. This is overeating. Fruits should be eaten before a meal or separately by itself. Try and eat only one variety of fruit at a time. This way you benefit, as fruits are easily digested and also they help clean the body
- Some people eat lot more when the food is tasty. Most people end up overeating when there is more variety.
There are sensors in our body which tell you when you have eaten enough. But if you continue to eat after this warning, our body DOES NOT give a second warning. With sensors thus disabled, you can easily overeat even more.
- Eating when unwell When we have fever or cold, for example, we do not feel hungry. The body also wants to rest so that it can clean up the collected toxins. But we take some medicine, eat regular food and carry on with working. This is a very big source of toxins and waste. This is also a missed opportunity to clean up and improve your immune system.
- Toxic thoughts If the mind is full of unhappy and negative thoughts, particularly, anger and malice, the body produces toxins.
- Toxins and waste are deposited in the weakest organ and parts of our body. This helps give us a warning in good time, because our weakest organ or part is the first to show dis-ease or unease.
How to Detoxify
The most effective way to detoxify the body is fasting. That is why most religions prescribed regular fasting- whether it is Lent, Ramadan or Ekadasi. If you cannot fast, skip eating whenever you are really not hungry. Do not eat just because the clock shows a certain hour. Skip a meal or two in a week. Do not eat when you are upset.
If you feel lethargic soon after eating, it is likely that your eating was not okay for you.
Practice some simple Pranayama and meditation. When you have a good self-esteem, you are unlikely to have negative thoughts and what others say will not trouble you much.
